Anti-Islamic film, Romney, are out of step

Friday

Sep 14, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Clive McFarlane

We saw belligerence in action this week, an imbecile movie maker in California stirring anti-Islamic sentiment and an out-of-his-depth Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, bashing the commander in chief while the country is under attack.

Intended or not, these two incidents serve one cynical outcome — the preservation of the status quo that nurtures endless tensions and religious and ethnic intolerance worldwide.

It has often been said that the United States, because of its strength and moral compass, stands uniquely qualified to lead the world.

What’s often understated, however, is the undeniable proposition that the country’s greatest strength lies not in its military might, but in the uncompromising adherence to its values.

President Barack Obama said as much during a campaign rally yesterday.

“These are tumultuous times we are in, but we can and will meet those challenges, if we stay true to who we are,” he said.

Mr. Obama was referring in part to Tuesday’s assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.

The assault on the consulate was partly launched by Libyans protesting a video created by a California man in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad was portrayed, among other things, as a pervert.

Snippets of the film posted on YouTube ignited, or were used by some to incite protests and violence against America and its interests throughout the Islamic world.

Early Tuesday morning, hours before the attack on the consulate in Libya, a staff member at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, sent out a tweet in hopes of easing the tension of the video-spurred protest building up outside the embassy compound.

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions,” the tweet read.

“Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy.

“Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

This tweet was what Mr. Romney, looking to score political points, used to accuse the embassy staff and the president of being enemy sympathizers.

“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” Mr. Romney said in part.

It was bad enough that Mr. Romney’s attack on the president failed to recognize that the tweet was put out many hours before the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. It didn’t help that his disgraceful charge was made before all the names of the fallen had been identified, before all the facts were known and before the president had addressed the nation on the attack.

But the most egregious and damaging aspect of Mr. Romney’s blustering was its attack on the foundation of our democracy — our values.

It is not an apology to tell the world, as the embassy tweet did, that America is founded on respect for religious beliefs.

It is not a weakness to say that while we protect freedom of speech, we are just as adamant in denouncing those who use that freedom to fan hatred and violence.

It is adherence to our values that gives us the moral authority to say to the Arab world, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did yesterday, “Violence…has no place in religion and is no way to honor religion.”

“Islam, like other religions, respects the fundamental dignity of human beings, and it is a violation of that fundamental dignity to wage attacks on innocence,” she said.

Granted, after decades of dictatorial leadership, the challenge in the wake of the Arab Spring is for the new leaders of the Arab world to speak as firmly as Secretary Clinton. They have an obligation to help their people learn and master the shared values of a true democracy, if that is their goal.

Indeed, we should insist on these shared values being a necessary outcome of our continued engagement with these countries.

It doesn’t help our cause, however, when Mr. Romney, a man seeking to be the leader of the free world, recklessly speaks of our values as a weakness, instead of the strength they are.